The DFI Pre-budget Submission, No Time to Delay- Disability Rights in Budget 2025 calls on Government to respond to four practical asks:
1. Sustainable health and social care services
2. Tackle poverty, cost of disability and employment
3. Ensure community inclusion and participation
4. Realising Housing for all
While these may appear fairly lofty requests, they would make it possible for a disabled person to live, work and participate in their communities as equal citizens. It’s worth saying that our submission is based on the shared experiences and the needs expressed by real people, and each ‘ask’ is grounded by the Articles of the UNCRPD.
Essentially, DFI’s asks are your asks and not one of them is outside of what people with disabilities should expect in a country which has ratified the UNCRPD.
Through our advocacy work, we offer persons with lived experience, representatives of member organisations and front-line staff the opportunity and the environment to express their issues and challenges.
What they have been saying to us from their life experiences, is underpinned and verified by the statistics and data contained in our submission. For example, when they say that they find it difficult to secure sustainable health and social care services, the data tells us that many people who live with disability are not receiving the necessary health and social services they need to live as equal citizens.
The data also tells us that persons with disability are more at risk of poverty than their neighbours, and people are telling us their own personal experiences of living in various degrees of poverty.
They tell us that they find it very hard to meet the cost-of-living increases. This is on top of the high cost of having a disability, and the inadequacy of disability payments. This is driving more people with disabilities into poverty every year. They express disappointment that the one-off disability payment of €500 in 2022 was reduced to €400 in the last Budget. To address this, they hope for this payment to be raised to minimum €500 again this year. This payment should to continue to increase year on year.
Employment is often seen as a strong mechanism to combat poverty, but the data tells us that the numbers of people with disabilities in employment are also far behind their counterparts across the EU. DFI is informed by educated and trained people with disabilities who say that in spite of their qualifications they still can’t secure employment.
DFI is aware of the efforts being made at local community level to support the participation of persons with lived experience in decision-making. Yet the absence of persons with lived experience engaging in decisions directly affecting their lives, remains a significant issue.
Unfortunately, when they do engage, we also continue to hear about consultation processes and methodologies which they feel reflect more ad-hoc ‘tick-box’ approaches. People with lived experience and members are expecting to be involved less in consultation and more in co-design processes which they expect under the UNCRPD.
In our Pre budget Submission, DFI calls for the resourcing of a national disability inclusion programme which would ideally be rolled out through Local Government structures such as the LCDC. In a similar manner to the Age Friendly Programme, the UNCRPD would be implemented through this programme at local level. this would offer more structured coordination to disability inclusion and active participation opportunities by persons with disabilities in their own communities.
Housing for people with disabilities is an ongoing crisis, and we are hearing directly how difficult it is across the country for anyone with a disability to achieve an independent home.
Even those already housed are impacted by the housing crisis. Many people with disabilities are in housing that no longer meet their needs. Applicants for housing adaptation grants have expressed fear that grant levels are not increasing to match the rising costs of materials and labour.
One applicant said she was afraid that by the time she has received the grant, the costs may have increased beyond her ability to meet them. The testimony of those we speak to substantiates the data.
Thousands of persons with disabilities avail of the supports and services of our 123 member organisations every day. So, when you read our Pre-Budget Submission, take the time to consider that the ‘asks’ are based on the genuine, heartfelt and honest experiences of real people, and all verified by what the data and statistics are telling us.
To download our Pre-Budget Submission please use the link here
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